Toxicity is an extent to which a particular substance can damage the living organism; it is important parameter to be evaluated during all stages of drug development. Toxicity testing is conducted to determine the degree to which a substance can damage a living or non-living organism. Owing to the higher rejection rate of drug in the recent years citing high toxicity level, the companies have started using toxicity testing in drug discovery.

The global early toxicity testing market is likely to show significant growth during the forecast period, due to technological advancements in the field and increasing R&D, and growing requirement of detecting toxicity at early stages. The global early toxicity testing market is segmented into technique, end-user, and geography. Based on technique, the market is segmented into in vivo testing, in-vitro testing and in silico testing. In vivo toxicity testing is performed on living animals, in vitro technique testing is performed in laboratories using biochemical assays and cellular assays without animals, and in silico technique testing is done by data analysis on computer with the help of data mining and data modelling tools. In the coming years, a paradigm shift is expected from in vivo to in vitro and in silico. Based on end-user, the market is segmented into pharmaceuticals industry, diagnostics industry, food industry, chemicals industry, cosmetics industry, and other industries.

Based on geography, the market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW: Pacific countries, Africa, and Latin America). North America accounted for the largest share of global early toxicity market, by region in 2014 owing to the presence of large pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing base. However, Asia is expected to be the fastest growing market during the forecast period.